Adventures in Decorating

Me, last week

For the record, can I just say, I loathe DIY. I am not a Do It Yourself person. I am as practical as a chocolate tea pot. No, I don't like crafts either. Unfortunately, I am surrounded by crafty, practical, creative people. People who may decide to totally redecorate their bedroom at 3 am, and have it done ready for when they go to work at 9 am. People with a sense of style, colour and flair.

Had I won last Friday's Euromillions jackpot, a paltry £122 million, I'd have put my tools down and hired a painter and decorator so fast, they'd have thought the number was on speed dial.

As the flat was previously rented out and the colour throughout was the rent-standard Magnolia, and the purpose of this exercise was to not only make it inhabitable again, but also to make it MINE, leaving it bland was not an option. I've spent a lot of time on the Dulux website and even downloaded their app (yes, there's even an app for that).

So, I'm experimenting with colour.

For my bedroom

My bedroom is a bit of a dark hole, not helped by the previous dark green carpet, or the fact the curtains practically covered the window even when they were opened. I've got a new carpet in there, a patterned beige which made a huge difference to the feel of the room. I was going to have Spring Rose and had actually bought a tin of it. I went to the DIY shop and saw the Raspberry Diva, as a Once paint, on special offer. I had to have it. I didn't care that it would turn my room into a cave. I needed it. We'll see how that turns out.

Dulux are really good at making palette suggestions and I opted for warm neutrals for the long, front room. There's a wooden dado rail that splits the wall, at a height that drives Dave insane. It's perfect for doing it two-tone. For the top part of the room (NB. part, not half and it's not even the Golden Ratio. But as I'm not about to rip the rail off the wall and re-plaster the whole damned room, Dave will just have to suck it up), I've chosen Malt Chocolate...

For the bottom part

I've got colourful furnishings and rather than decorate with those colours in mind, I am trying to create as neutral a canvas as possible, but with some colour. Goodness knows how it's going to turn out. Dave hates it as a colour scheme. But then, he like Lime Green as a colour, which I loathe. As it's my space...he'll have to put up with it. I like it.

I'm currently putting the kitchen together. I have put a kitchen together before. The kitchen in my former marital home was from MFI. I could follow those instructions without any bother. This kitchen, from Wickes, is a bit of a challenge. I'm not good with following instructions at the best of times. If it needs an instruction manual, it's not worth my time. These are not intuitive. Needless to say, I'm finding this a bit of a challenge.

The kitchen, is going to be ultra-modern. The cabinets are a high-gloss, pale cream, with black worktops and the floor is dark and silver vinyl. It's going to be gorgeous. I'm going for a chalky purple colour for the walls. I think it's kind of this colour. Unfortunately, I'm having a senior moment, the colour will have to be mixed for me and I've had so many tester pots, I actually can't remember the name of the damned thing!

So, this is how I've been spending my weekends and most of my days. I've snatched the occasional bit of free time - by free I mean time not spent in the office or in the flat - so I could do my laundry and try to work out. I've also got the outlines of a couple of novellas and a couple of novels. 

The next 3 weeks are going to be Hell. I'm doing DIY which I loathe and then straight on to moving house, which I detest. I am going to be whinging a helluva lot. Please be patient. I can't wait for this to be over, so I will be embedded in the Flat and can get on with it.